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rHE COMFORT 

^BGOIC 

Selections, from 
HE BIBLE and OTHER LITERATURE 
(bib 



JAMBS H. D 



Class 

Book i 

CopightN 0 . 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 
COMFORT BOOK 



SELECTIONS FROM THE BIBLE 
AND OTHER LITERATURE 
REGARDING THE LIFE 
IMMORTAL 



COMPILED BY 

JAMES H. DOWNEY 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 




Copyright, 1915, by 

JAMES H. DOWNEY 

The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American 
Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by 
Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. 



0. Vvf~ 
APR -6 1915 

©CI, A 3 98231 



DEDICATED 



to 

My Son 

WILBUR J. DOWNEY 

the only surviving member of my family, and 
in memory of a WIFE and MOTHER, who, 
unselfish, kind, and patient through suffering, 
in her earthly life, is now in full fruition of 



THE LIFE IMMORTAL 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 



Preface 7 

Immortality in the Scriptures 9 

The Old Testament 9 

The Gospels 11 

Acts and Epistles 14 

Revelation 20 

Immortality in the Ancient Writings. ... 23 

Immortality in Modern Literature 25 

The Poets 25 

Religious Writers 42 

Novelists and Essayists 53 

Theologians and Preachers 66 

Periodical Press 83 

Miscellaneous 87 

L/Envoi 91 



PREFACE 



Immortality has been to me a subject 
of great and thoughtful interest, as one 
after one my friends, and nearly all my 
family — including my companion of over 
forty years — have taken their departure to 
that "bourne from whence no traveler re- 
turns/' 

I have read much on the subject, and 
have wished that some one might have col- 
lected the best of all that has been uttered 
thereon into book form for the comfort and 
encouragement of the many who must be 
interested in this matter. 

Failing to find such a volume, I have, in 
my own behalf and that of others who may 
be helped thereby, compiled these extracts, 
making my selections from the authoritative 
statements of Scripture, and the utterances 
of prose and poetical writers that appeal 
to the soul and answer to its divinely im- 
planted longings for immortality. 

I may say that the result of this very 
pleasant labor on my part is to confirm and 
7 



8 



PREFACE 



establish my own hope and belief in the 
Life Immortal and fill my soul with joyous 
anticipations of reunion beyond the grave. 

If this little book may be the means of 
bringing to other souls light and cheer re- 
garding the future, and if it shall carry 
some degree of comfort and consolation to 
other bereaved hearts, the purpose of the 
compiler will have been accomplished, with 
his gratitude to God for the privilege thus 
afforded him. 

James H. Downey. 

901 Sterling Place, 
Brooklyn, New York. 



Smmortatttp in tfje Scriptures 



The Old Testament 

I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
And at last he will stand up upon the earth : 
And after my skin, even this body, is 
destroyed, 

Then without my flesh shall I see God; 
Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, 
And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a 
stranger. 

— Job ip. 2 5-2 J. 

But now he is dead, . . . can I bring him 
back again? I shall go to him, but he will 
not return to me. — 2 Sam. 12. 23. 

Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; 
Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see 

corruption. 
Thou wilt show me the path of life : 
In thy presence is fullness of joy; 
In thy right hand there are pleasures for 

evermore. 

— -Psa. 16. io, 11. 

9 



io THE COMFORT BOOK 



I shall behold thy face in righteousness; 
I shall be satisfied when I awake, with 
beholding thy form. 

— Psa. if. 15. 

God will redeem my soul from the power 

of Sheol; 
For he will receive me. 

— Psa. 49- 15* 

Unto Jehovah the Lord belongeth escape 
from death. 

— Psa. 68. 20. 



Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, 
And afterward receive me to glory. 

— Psa. 73. 24. 

The spirit returneth unto God who gave 
it. — Eccles. 12. 7. 

Thine eyes shall see the king in his 
beauty. — Isa. 33. 17. 

If the wicked turn from all his sins . . . 
he shall surely live, he shall not die. — Ezek. 
18. 21. 

They that turn many to righteousness 



THE COMFORT BOOK n 



[shall shine] as the stars for ever and ever. 
— Dan. 12. 3. 

The Gospels 

For in the resurrection they . . . are as 
angels in heaven. — Matt. 22. 30. 

God is not the God of the dead, but of 
the living. — Matt. 22. 32. 

The righteous [shall go] into life eternal. 
—Matt. 25. 46. 

Shall . . . receive ... in the world to 
come eternal life. — Luke 18. 30. 

For neither can they die any more : for 
they are equal unto the angels ; and are sons 
of God, being sons of the resurrection. — 
Luke 20. 36. 

Thus it is written, that the Christ should 
suffer, and rise again from the dead the 
third day. — Luke 24. 46. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth on him should not perish, but have 
eternal life. — John 3. 16. 



12 THE COMFORT BOOK 



He that believeth on the Son hath eternal 
life. — John j. j(5. 

The water that I shall give him shall 
become in him a well of water springing 
up unto eternal life. — John 4. 14. 

He that heareth my word, and believeth 
him that sent me, hath eternal life. — John 

They that have done good [shall come 
forth] unto the resurrection of life. — John 

For this is the will of my Father, that 
everyone that beholdeth the Son, and be- 
lieveth on him, should have eternal life; 
and I will raise him up at the last day. — 
John 6. 40. 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
believeth hath eternal life. — John 6. 47. 

I am the living bread: ... if any man 
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. — 
John 6. 51. 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man 
keep my word, he shall never see death. — 
John 8. 51. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



13 



My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
them, and they follow me : and I give unto 
them eternal life; and they shall never 
perish. — John 10. 27, 28. 

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrec- 
tion, and the life : he that believeth on me, 
though he die, yet shall he live; and who- 
soever liveth and believeth on me shall 
never die. — John 11. 25, 26. 

What I do thou knowest not now; but 
thou shalt understand hereafter. — John 
13- 7> 

Let not your heart be troubled : believe 
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
house are many mansions ; if it were not 
so, I would have told you ; for I go to pre- 
pare a place for you . . . that where I am, 
there ye may be also.— John 14. 1-3. 

Father, I desire that they also whom thou 
hast given me be with me where I am, that 
they may behold my glory, which thou hast 
given me. — John 17. 24. 

These are written, that ye may believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; 



14 THE COMFORT BOOK 



and that believing ye may have [eternal] 
life in his name. — John 20. 31. 

Acts and Epistles 

And now I commend you to God, . . . 
who is able to build you up, and to give 
you the inheritance among all them who 
are sanctified. — Acts 20. 32. 

Who will render ... to them that by 
patience in well-doing seek for glory and 
honor and incorruption, eternal life. — Rom. 
2. 6, 7. 

The free gift of God is eternal life in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. — Rom. 6. 23. 

For I reckon that the sufferings of this 
present time are not worthy to be compared 
with the glory which shall be revealed to 
us-ward. — Rom. 8. 18. 

For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but 
then face to face : now I know in part ; but 
then shall I know' fully even as also I was 
fully known. — 1 Cor. ij. 12. 

Now if Christ is preached that he hath 
been raised from the dead, how say some 



THE COMFORT BOOK 15 



among you that there is no resurrection of 
the dead? But if there is no resurrection 
of the dead, neither hath Christ been 
raised : and if Christ hath not been raised, 
then is our preaching vain, your faith also 
is vain. Yea, and we are found false wit- 
nesses of God ; because we witnessed of 
God that he raised up Christ : whom he 
raised not up, if so be that the dead are 
not raised. For if the dead are not raised, 
neither hath Christ been raised: and if 
Christ hath not been raised, your faith is 
vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they 
also that are fallen asleep in Christ have 
perished. If we have only hoped in Christ 
in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. 

But now hath Christ been raised from 
the dead, the first fruits of them that are 
asleep. For since by man came death, by 
man came also the resurrection of the dead. 
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ 
shall all be made alive. 

So also it is written, The first man Adam 
became a living soul. The last Adam be- 
came a life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is 
not first which is spiritual, but that which 
is natural ; then that which is spiritual. The 



16 THE COMFORT BOOK 



first man is of the earth, earthy: the second 
man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such 
are they also that are earthy : and as is the 
heavenly, such are they also that are heav- 
enly. And as we have borne the image of 
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of 
the heavenly. 

For this corruptible must put on incorrup- 
tion, and this mortal must put on immor- 
tality. But when this corruptible shall have 
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall 
have put on immortality, then shall come to 
pass the saying that is written, Death is 
swallowed up in victory. O death, where 
is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting ? 
The sting of death is sin ; and the power 
of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, 
who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved 
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is 
not in vain in the Lord. — I Cor. 15. 

Knowing that he that raised up the Lord 
Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and 
shall present us with you. — 2 Cor. 4. 14. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 17 

For our light affliction, which is for the 
moment, worketh for us more and more 
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 
while we look not at the things which are 
seen, but at the things which are not seen : 
for the things which are seen are temporal ; 
but the things which are not seen are eter- 
nal. — 2 Cor. 4. 17, 18. 

For we know that if the earthly house 
of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a 
building from God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal, in the heavens. 

For indeed we that are in this tabernacle 
do groan, being burdened ; not for that we 
would be unclothed, but that we would 
be clothed upon, that what is mortal may 
be swallowed up of life. — 2 Cor. 5. 1-4. 

For to me to live is Christ, but to die 
is gain. — Phil. 1. 21. 

That I may know him, and the power of 
his resurrection, ... if by any means I 
may attain unto the resurrection from the 
dead. — Phil. 5. jo, ii. 



i8 THE COMFORT BOOK 



Who shall fashion anew the body of our 
humiliation, that it may be conformed to 
the body of his glory, according to the 
working whereby he is able even to subject 
all things unto himself. — Phil. J. 21, 

When Christ who is our life, shall be 
manifested, then shall ye also with him be 
manifested in glory. — Col. 3. 4. 

But we would not have you ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them that fall asleep ; 
that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who 
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also that 
are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring 
with him . . . Wherefore comfort one an- 
other with these words. — 1 Thess. 4. 13. 

Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold 
on the life eternal. — 1 Tim. 6. 12. 

Manifested by the appearing of our 
Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, 
and brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel. — 2 Tim. 1. 10. 

Henceforth there is laid up for me the 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 



THE COMFORT BOOK 19 



the righteous judge, shall give to me at that 
day; and not to me only, but also to all 
them that have loved his appearing. — 2 
Tim. 4. 8. 

Looking for the blessed hope and appear- 
ing of the glory of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ. — Titus 2. jj. 

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent 
forth to do service for the sake of them that 
shall inherit salvation? — Heb. 1. 14. 

There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest 
for the people of God. — Heb. 4. p. 

But now they desire a better country, that 
is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not 
ashamed of them, to be called their God; 
for he hath prepared for them a city. — 
Heb. 11. 16. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his 
great mercy begat us again unto a living 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead, unto an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved in heaven.— 1 Pet. 1. J, 4. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



And this is the promise which he 
promised us, even the life eternal. — I John 

2. 2$. 

Beloved, now are we children of God, and 
it is not yet made manifest what we shall 
be. We know that, if he shall be mani- 
fested, we shall be like him; for we shall 
see him even as he is. — / John 3. 2. 

These things have I written unto you, 
that ye may know that ye have eternal life. 
— 1 John 5. 1 J. 

And we know that the Son of God is 
come, and hath given us an understanding, 
that we know him that is true, and we 
are in him that is true, even in his Son 
Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and 
eternal life. — 1 John 5. 20. 

Keep yourselves in the love of God, look- 
ing for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ 
unto eternal life. — Jude, verse 21. 

Revelation 

He that overcometh, I will give to him 
to sit down with me in my throne, as I also 



THE COMFORT BOOK 21 



overcame, and sat down with my Father 
in his throne. — Rev. 3. 21. 

After these things I saw, and behold, 
a great multitude, which no man could num- 
ber, out of every nation and of all tribes 
and peoples and tongues, standing before 
the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in 
white robes, and palms in their hands; 
and they cry with a great voice, saying, 
Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the 
throne, and unto the Lamb. . . . And they 
fell before the throne on their faces, and 
worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, 
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, 
and honor, and power, and might, be unto 
our God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

And one of the elders answered, saying 
unto me, These that are arrayed in the 
white robes, who are they, and whence 
came they? And I say unto him, My lord, 
thou knowest. And he said to me, These 
are they that come out of the great tribula- 
tion, and they washed their robes, and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
Therefore are they before the throne of 
God; and they serve him day and night in 
his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne 



22 THE COMFORT BOOK 



shall spread his tabernacle over them. They 
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more; neither shall the sun strike upon 
them, nor any heat: for the Lamb that is 
in the midst of the throne shall be their 
shepherd, and shall guide them unto foun- 
tains of waters of life; and God shall wipe 
away every tear from their eyes. — Rev. y. 
9-1/. 

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 
Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, 
that they may rest from their labors; for 
their works follow with them. — Rev. 14. 13. 

And they shall see his face ; and his name 
shall be in their foreheads. And there 
shall be night no more; and they need no 
light of lamp, neither light of sun ; for the 
Lord God shall give them light: and they 
shall reign for ever and ever. — Rev. 22. 4. 



Smmortalttp in tlje Ancient Wxitinqp 



The soul being a bright fire, by the power 
of the Father remains immortal. 

The soul of man will in a manner clasp 
God to herself. — From a Translation of 
the Writings of Zoroaster. 

When the day shall come that will sepa- 
rate this composition, human and divine, 
I will leave this body here, where I found 
it, and return to the gods. Not that I am 
altogether absent from them even now, 
though detained from superior happiness 
by this heavy earthly clog. 

This short stay in mortal life is but the 
prelude to a better and more lasting life 
above. . . . That day which men are apt 
to dread as their last is but the birthday 
of an eternity. — From a Translation of the 
Writings of Seneca. 

The great, the wise, the valiant, the beau- 
tiful — alas! where are they now? They 
are all mingled with the clod; and that 
23 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



which has befallen to them shall happen 
to us and to those that come after us. Yet, 
let us take courage. . . . Let us aspire to 
that heaven where all is eternal, and cor- 
ruption cannot come. The horrors of the 
tomb are but the cradle of the Sun, and the 
dark shadows of death are brilliant lights 
for the stars. — From a Translation of the 
Writings of the Indian Monarch, Nezahual- 
coyotl. 



Smmortalttp in fHoisern Utterature 



The Poets 

My own dim life should teach me this, 
That life shall live for evermore, 
Else earth is darkness at the core, 

And dust and ashes all that is. 

O yet we trust that somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill, 
To pangs of nature, sins of will, 

Defects of doubt, and taints of blood ; 

That nothing walks with aimless feet, 
That not one life shall be destroyed, 
Or cast as rubbish to the void, 

When God hath made the pile complete. 

— Alfred Tennyson. 

The stars shall fade away, the sun him- 
self grow dim with age, and nature sink in 
years; but thou (my soul) shalt flourish in 
immortal youth, unhurt amid the war of 
elements, the wreck of matter, and the 
crash of worlds. — Joseph Addison. 

25 



26 THE COMFORT BOOK 



I go to prove my soul ! 
I see my way as birds their trackless way. 
I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit first, 
I ask not ; but unless God send his hail 
Or blinding fireballs, sleet, or stifling snow 
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive : 
He guides me and the bird. In his good 
time. 

— Robert Browning. 

It must be so ! Plato, thou reasonest well ! 
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond 

desire, 

This longing after immortality? 
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an here- 
after, 

And intimates eternity to man. 

— Joseph Addison. 

We see but dimly through the mists and 
vapors ; 

Amid these earthly damps, 
What seem to us 'but sad funereal tapers 

May be heaven's distant lamps. 

There is no death ! what seems so is transi- 
tion ; 



THE COMFORT BOOK 27 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 
Whose portal we call Death. 

— H. W. Longfellozv. 

Who hath not learned in hours of faith 
This truth to flesh and sense unknown; 

That life is ever lord of death, 

And Love can never lose its own ! 

— John Greenleaf Whit tier. 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me ! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound or foam, 
When that which drew from out the bound- 
less deep 

Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark; 

For though from out our bourne of Time 
and Place 



28 THE COMFORT BOOK 



The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crossed the bar. 

— Alfred Tennyson. 

There is a day of sunny rest, 

For every dark and troubled night ; 

Grief may abide an evening guest, 

But joy shall come with morning light. 

For God has marked each sorrowing day, 
And numbered every secret tear, 

And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay 
For all his children suffer here. 

— William Cullen Bryant. 

"Deem not that they are blest." Copyright by D. Appleton & Co. 

I know this earth is not my sphere, 
For I cannot so narrow me but that 
I still exceed it. 

— Robert Browning. 

Take the joys and bear the sorrows — 

neither with extreme concern ! 
Living here means nescience simply; 'tis 

next life that helps to learn. 
Shut those eyes next life will open — stop 

those ears next life will teach 
Hearing's office; close those lips next life 

will give the power of speech! 



THE COMFORT BOOK 29 



Or, if action more amuse thee than the 

passive attitude, 
Bravely bustle through thy being, busy thee 

for ill or good, 
Reap this life's success or failure ! Soon 

shall things be unperplexed, 
And the right or wrong, now tangled, lie 

unraveled in the next. 

— Robert Browning. 

For I must be immortal, 
Not doomed to die, but surely called to live 
Here and hereafter by His loving will 
Who placed me where I am. 

— Alfred Tennyson. 

And I, with faltering footsteps, journey on, 
W atching the stars that roll the hours away, 
Till the faint light that guides me now is 
gone, 

And, like another life, the glorious day 
Shall open o'er me from the empyreal 
height, 

With warmth, and certainty, and bound- 
less light. 

— William Cullen Bryant. 

This body is my house — it is not I ; 
Herein I sojourn till, in some far sky, 



SO THE COMFORT BOOK 



I lease a fairer dwelling, built to last 
Till all the carpentery of time is past, 
When from my high place viewing this lone 
star, 

What shall I care where these poor timbers 
are? 

What though the crumbling walls turn dust 

and loam — 
I shall have left them for a larger home. 
What though the rafters break, the 

stanchions rot, 
When earth has dwindled to a glimmering 

spot! 

When thou, clay cottage, fallest, I'll im- 
merse 

My long-cramped spirit in the universe. 
Through uncomputed silences of space 
I shall yearn upward to the leaning Face. 
The ancient heavens will roll aside for me, 
As Moses monarched the dividing sea. 
This body is my house — it is not I. 
Triumphant in this faith I live, and die. 

— Frederic Lawrence Knowles. 

"The Tenant." Copyright by Dana Estes & Co. 

Admit immortal life, 
And virtue is knight-errantry no more; 
Each virtue brings in hand a golden dower 



THE COMFORT BOOK 31 



Far richer in reversion; Hope exults, 
And, though much bitter in the cup is 
thrown, 

Predominates and gives the taste of heaven. 
Oh, wherefore is the Deity so kind ? 
Astonishing beyond astonishment! 
Heaven our reward for heaven enjoyed 
below. 

— Edward Young. 

Our life is onward, and our very dust 
Is longing for its change, that it may take 
New combination — that the soul may break 
From its dark thralldom, where it lies in 
trust 

Of its great resurrection. Not the rust 
Of cold inertness shall defeat the life 
Of e'en the poorest which after strife 
Shall spring from our dead ashes, and 

which must 
Bless some else barren waste with its meek 

grace. 

And germs of beautiful vast thought con- 
cealed, 

Lie deep within the soul which evermore 
Onward and upward strives. The last in 
place 

Enfolds the higher yet to be revealed, 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



And each the sepulcher of that which went 
before. 

— Elizabeth Oakes Smith. 

O happy world ! O glorious place ! 

Where all who are forgiven 
Shall find their loved and lost below, 
And hearts, like meeting streams, shall flow 

Forever one, in heaven. 

— Anon. 

Not by the dross of worlds we gauge the 
mind ; 

Nor by material laws is it confined. 
Though mighty are the orbs which roll in 

space, 

Mightier far the soul to run its race, 
Transcending time, eliminating space, 
In unseen things its destiny to trace. 

Not for a moment, then, the mind confine — 
It claims eternity as well as time. 
Absolved from matter, there's no time or 
space, 

Nor past nor future in its mighty race. 
An endless now — one bright eternal day — 
When once the soul from earth shall pass 
away. 

— Daniel Forbes Lockerby. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 33 



The battle is ended; the hero goes 
Worn and scarred to his last repose. 
He has won the day: he has conquered 
doom, 

He has sunk unknown to his nameless 
tomb. 

For the victor's glory no voice may plead, 
Fame has no echo and earth no meed ; 
But the guardian angels are hovering 
near — 

They have watched unseen o'er the conflict 
here — 

And they bear him now on their wings 
away 

To a realm of peace, to a cloudless day. 
Ended now is earthly strife, 
And his brow is crowned with the crown 
of life. 

— Anne C. Lynch. 

Some day thou, too, shalt go, 

Shalt pass beyond the gate, 
Beyond the sunset's glow, 
Beyond the ebb and flow 

Of time and change and fate ; 

See what there is to see, 
Know what there is to know, 

Be what is thine to be. 



34 THE COMFORT BOOK 

Soul ! Soul ! Thou shalt be free 
That day when thou shalt go ! 

— Helen Hawthorne, 

"Thou Shalt B« Fr«e," 1n Christian Register, Boston, Mass. 

Life ! We've been so long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy 

weather, 

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear — 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 
Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time; say not "Good 
night," 

But in some brighter clime bid me "Good 
morning." 

— Mrs. A. L. Barbauld. 

And I sit and think when the sunset's gold 
Is flushing river, and hill, and shore, 

I shall one day stand by the water cold, 
And list for the sound of the boatman's 
oar ; 

I shall watch for a gleam of the flapping 
sail ; 

I shall hear the boat as it gains the 
strand ; 

I shall pass from sight with the boatman 
pale, 



THE COMFORT BOOK 35 



To the better shore of the spirit land. 
I shall know the loved who have gone 
before, 

And joyfully sweet will the meeting be, 
When over the river, the peaceful river, 
The angel of death shall carry me. 

— Nancy A. W. Priest. 

What care I though falls the sky 

And the shivering earth to a cinder turn ? 

No fires of doom can ever consume 

What never was made nor meant to burn ! 

Let go the breath ! There is no death 
To a living soul, nor loss, nor harm, 

Not of the clod is the life of God — 
Let it mount as it will from form to form. 

— Charles Gordon Ames. 

I hold that, since by death alone 
God bids my soul go free, 

In death a richer blessing is 
Than all the world to me. 
— ScheMer, translated by Frederic Rozvland 

Marvin. 

A human soul went forth into the night, 
Shutting behind it Death's mysterious 
door, 



36 THE COMFORT BOOK 

And shaking off, with strange resistless 
might 

The dust that once it wore. 

So swift its flight, so suddenly it sped — 

As when by skillful hand a bow is bent 
The arrow flies — those watching round the 
bed 

Marked not the way it went. 

Through the clear silence of the moonless 

dark, 

Leaving no footprint of the way it trod, 
Straight as an arrow cleaving to its mark, 
The soul went home to God. 

"Alas !" they cried, "he never saw the morn, 
But fell asleep, outwearied with the 
strife"— 

Nay, rather, he arose and met the dawn 
Of Everlasting Life. 

— Christian Burke. 

Forenoon and afternoon and night, — Fore- 
noon, 

And afternoon, and night, — Forenoon, 

and — what ? 
The empty song repeats itself. No more? 



THE COMFORT BOOK 37 

Yea, that is Life: make this forenoon 
sublime, 

This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, 
And Time is conquered, and thy crown is 
won. 

— Edward Rowland Sill. 

Copyright, Houghton/ Mifflin & Co. 

So live that when the mighty caravan, 
Which halts one nighttime in the vale of 
Death, 

Shall strike its white tents for the morning 
march, 

Thou shalt mount onward to the eternal 
Hills, 

Thy foot unwearied, and thy strength 
renewed 

Like the strong eagle's for the upward 
flight. 

— Anon. 

"Thine eyes shall see the King." Soon, 

soon the veil 
That hides the glorious Throne shall be 

withdrawn, 
No cloud shall hang athwart the radiant 

dawn 

Of Heaven's glad morning. Yet no eye 
shall fail for all the brightness, 



38 THE COMFORT BOOK 



Perfect light will bring a perfect vision, 
Heavenly rapture fall on hearts attuned to 

comprehend it all. 
The songs will not seem strange that angels 

sing; 

New, but not strange. The joy will be most 
sweet, 

Because most natural. To see Him there, 
To know and love him, and his image bear 
Will make it homelike. Though the golden 
streets 

Were more than golden, yet it still would be 
The "Father's House" and nothing else to 
thee. 

— Lucy A. Bennett. 

Why should I dread to pass the silent portal 
That opens the pathway to the great be- 
yond, 

To tread the road proclaimed for every 
mortal 

When the freed spirit bursts its earthly 
bond? 

Do I not know that when this life has 
ended, 

And every shadow of its care has fled, 



THE COMFORT BOOK 39 



When all we love, with whom our souls 
have blended 
Have sunk to rest with " those whom we 
call dead," 

That in that land, over the mystic river, 
Absolved from error, and devoid of stain, 

Blessed by the bounty of the mighty Giver, 
A brighter life shall dawn for us again ! 

That there the bruised heart that well nigh 
perished 

Beneath its load of suffering and wrong, 
Sustained by Faith, and by Affection cher- 
ished, 

Shall thrill the heavens with its grateful 
song. 

That there the stricken souls who vainly 
waded 

O'er Hope's dead sea, never to reach the 
shore, 

Shall find their trusting ones with love 
unfaded, 

No longer lost, but only gone before. 

No longer, then, my doubt's absorbing power 
Dim the fair radiance of the future's sky; 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



But let me wait in patience for the hour 
That kindly teaches me, " 'tis joy to die/' 

— /. H. Gray, 

So, thievish Time, I fear thee not ; 

Thou'rt powerless on this heart of mine ; 
My precious jewels are mine own, 

'Tis but the settings that are thine. 

— Charles Mackay. 

Life never dies; 
Body dies off it, and it lives elsewhere. 

— Bayard Taylor. 

Of man immortal ! Hear the lofty style : 
"If so decreed, th' Almighty will be done. 
Let earth dissolve, yon ponderous orbs 
descend, 

And grind us into dust: the soul is safe; 
The man emerges ; mounts above the wreck, 
As towering flame from Nature's funeral 
pyre: 

O'er devastation, as a gainer, smiles ; 
His charter, his inviolable rights, 
Well pleased to learn from thunder's im- 
potence 

Death's pointless darts, and Hell's defeated 
storms." 

— Edward Young. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 41 

But soon the doubt and toil and strife of 

earth shall all be done, 
And knowledge of our endless life be in 

a moment won. 

— Otway Carry. 



Is it not sweet to think, hereafter, 

When the spirit leaves this sphere, 
Love, with deathless wing, shall waft her 

To those she long hath mourned for here? 
Hearts from which 'twas death to sever, 

Eyes this world can ne'er restore, 
There, as warm, as bright as ever, 

Shall meet us and be lost no more. 



Alas ! alas ! doth Hope deceive us ? 

Shall friendship — love — shall all those 
ties 

That bind a moment, and then leave us, 
Be found again where nothing dies? 

Oh ! if no other boon were given 

To our hearts from wrong and stain, 

Who would not try to win a heaven 
Where all we love shall live again? 

— Thomas Moore. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



Religious Writers 

Breathe on me, Breath of God, 

Till I am wholly thine, 
Till all this earthly part of me 

Glows with thy fire divine. 

Breathe on me, Breath of God, 

So shall I never die, 
But live with thee the perfect life 

Of thine eternity. 

— Edwin Hatch. 

The tomb is but the gateway to an eter- 
nity of opportunity. 

— Anon. 

Thus nothing dies, or only dies to live. 
Sun, star, stream, flower, the dewdrop, 

and the gold; 
Each goodly thing, instinct with buoyant 

hope, 

Hastes to put on its purer, finer mold. 

Thus in the quiet joy of kindly trust, 
We bid each parting saint a brief fare- 
well; 

Weeping, yet smiling, we commit their dust 
To the safe-keeping of the silent cell. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



Softly within that peaceful resting place 
We lay their wearied limbs, and bid the 
clay 

Press lightly on them till the night be past, 
And the far east give warning of the 
coming day. 

The day of reappearing ! How it speeds ! 
He who is true and faithful speaks the 
word. 

Then shall we ever be with those we love. 
Then shall we be forever with the Lord. 

— Horatius Bonar. 

It is not death to die — 
To leave this weary road, 

And, mid the brotherhood on high, 
To be at home with God. 

It is not death to close 

The eye long dimmed by tears, 

And wake in glorious repose 
To spend eternal years. 

—George W. Bethune. 

I go to life and not to death ; 

From darkness to life's native sky; 
I go from sickness and from pain 

To health and immortality. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



God lives! Who says that I must die? 

I cannot while Jehovah liveth ! 
Christ lives ! I cannot die, but live ; 

He life to me forever giveth. 

— Horatius Bonar. 

The heavenly home is bright and fair : 
Nor death nor sighing visits there ; 
Its glittering towers the sun outshine; 
That heavenly mansion shall be mine. 

Then fail this earth, let stars decline, 
And sun and moon refuse to shine ; 
All nature sink and cease to be, 
That heavenly mansion stands for me. 

— William Hunter. 

Yes, we do but die to live ; 

It is from death we're flying; 
Forever lives our life; 

For us there is no dying. 
We die but as the Spring-bud dies, 
In Summer's golden glow to rise, 
These be our days of April bloom ; 
Our Summer is, beyond the tomb. 

— Horatius Bonar. 

Are you faint with hope delayed? 
Life is long! 



THE COMFORT BOOK 45 



Tarries that for which you prayed? 

Life is long! 
What delights may not abide — 
What ambitions satisfied — 
What possessions may not be 
In God's great eternity? 
Lift the heart! Be glad and strong! 

Life is long! 

—Amos R. Wells. 

"The Length of Life." Copyright by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

It was the fancy of the ancients to speak 
of the "sleep of death" ; but for the Chris- 
tian, life is the sleep from which death 
awakens him. "Our birth is but a sleep and 
a forgetting." 

In death the spirit opens its eyes, recalled 
from a troubled dream to the realities of 
life which have all the time surrounded it 
unseen, and to the Father, who has been 
all the time "not far from any one of us." 
— F. W. Henry. 

Through the Darkness. Copyright, 1884, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

But little is said in the New Testament 
about death. We have very clear and defi- 
nite assertions of the fact of immortality, 
but mere hints only of the form of the life 
into which the earthly life emerges, through 



46 THE COMFORT BOOK 

dying. Two of the most vivid of the ex- 
pressions used by St. Paul in speaking of 
what occurs in dying are in the phrases 
"absent from the body" and "at home with 
the Lord." In dying we leave the body, 
which has been "the earthly house of our 
tabernacle" during our stay. The old house 
is empty — the tenant has gone out of it. 
But we are not homeless now, because of 
our eviction from the earthly house; we 
are "at home with the Lord." That is, we 
have a far more glorious dwelling place 
than the one we were in before. "We know 
that if the earthly house of our tabernacle 
be dissolved, we have a building from God, 
a house not made with hands, eternal, in. 
the heavens." Instead of a tent, which is 
frail and temporary, liable to decay and 
dissolution, our new habitation is a building 
from God, not made with hands, eternal. 
Instead of an earthly house, our new home 
is in the heavens. Instead of a place of 
pain and suffering in which we groan, being 
burdened, when we leave it we shall find 
ourselves at once at home with Christ. 
There is no time for wandering, unclothed, 
as disembodied spirits, seeking for a new 
habitation in which to dwell, but the mo- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 47 



ment we are absent from the body we shall 
find ourselves at home in heaven. Our new 
habitation will be a home, with all the 
blessed meaning of that word; it will be 
eternal ; it will be with Christ. — /. R. Miller. 

The Book of Comfort. Copyright by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. 

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy 
race, 

For when as each bad thing thou hast 
entomb' d, 

And last of all thy greedy self consumed, 
Then long eternity shall greet our bliss 
With an individual kiss ; 
And joy shall overtake us as a flood, 
When everything that is sincerely good 
And perfectly divine, 

With Truth and Peace and Love shall ever 
shine 

About the supreme throne 
Of Him to whose happy-making sight alone 
When once our heavenly guided soul shall 
climb, 

Then, all this earthly grossness quit, 
Attired with stars we shall forever sit 
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and 
thee, O Time. 

— An on. 



48 THE COMFORT BOOK 



The strife is o'er, the battle done; 
The victory of life is won ; 
The song of triumph has begun. 

— Francis Pott. 

Paul, as a Christian, knew that we should 
not be "unclothed but clothed upon." What 
we have to look forward to is not a process 
of subtraction but of addition. All that 
this body has been meaning to me in this 
world — of sense and growing knowledge 
and power and manifested identity — all that 
and more my Christian faith promises me 
in the world beyond. For even if this mor- 
tal body should wear out and be dissolved, 
my faith promises me something which it 
is fair to call, as the apostle calls it, "a 
spiritual body." My Lord's own victory 
over the grave has given this assurance to 
all his people that there is for them in the 
spiritual life beyond, something that shall 
mean to them all of advantage that this 
natural body has ever meant to us in the 
life here on earth; that death shall not 
condemn us to the shivering nakedness of 
pagan despair, that we shall not be un- 
clothed but clothed, that mortality may be 
swallowed up of life. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 49 

At the same time I am well assured that 
all the rich and novel experiences of that 
unknown future shall never rob me of this 
personal identity to which I cling so fondly 
now for myself and for my friends ; for the 
very principle of this identity which all 
through my life has been ordering all these 
changing particles of matter into one body 
for me has been nothing but the breath of 
life in me, my own living self. And I my- 
self, blessed be God, am going to live on. 
It is a mystery, as all life is . . . But the 
mystery grows radiant through our Lord's 
great triumph over corruption and death. 
... As Christians we believe in that ever- 
lasting life. All one life it is, a life which 
the accidents of time can never interrupt, 
and over which death has no power. — 
W . R. Richards, in the Bible Study Quar- 
terly. 

To think for aye! to breathe immortal 
breath, 

And know nor hope, nor fear, of ending 
death ; 

To see the myriad worlds that round us roll 
Wax old and perish, while the steadfast 
soul 



50 THE COMFORT BOOK 

Stands fresh and moveless in her sphere of 
thought ; 

O God omnipotent ! who in me wrought 
This conscious world, whose ever-growing 
orb, 

When the dead Past shall all in time absorb, 
Will be as but begun, — oh, of thine own 
Give of the holy light that veils thy throne, 
That darkness be not mine, to take my place 
Beyond the reach of light, a blot in space! 
So may this wondrous life, from sin made 
free, 

Reflect thy love for aye, and to thy glory be ! 

— Washington Allston. 

What though with weariness oppressed? 
Tis but a little and we rest. 
This throbbing heart and burning brain 
Will soon be calm and cool again. 
Night is far spent and morn is near, — 
Morn of the cloudless and the clear ! 

We grudge not, then, the toil, the way: 
Its ending is the endless day! 
We shrink not from these tempests keen, 
With little of the calm between ; 



THE COMFORT BOOK 51 

We welcome each descending sun, — 
Ere morn, our joy may be begun! 

— Horatius Bonar. 



So when my latest breath 
Shall rend the veil in twain, 

By death I shall escape from death, 
And life eternal gain. 

— James Montgomery. 



I have learned 
This doctrine from the vanishing of youth. 
The pictured primer, true, is thrown aside ; 
But its first lesson liveth in my heart. 
I shall go on through all eternity. 
Thank God, I am only an embryo still ; 
The small beginning of a glorious soul, 
An atom that shall fill immensity. 

— A. C. Coxe. 



My soul shall see the eternal day, 
And dwell with God forever ! 

— Thomas Dale. 



I think of death as some delightful journey 
That I shall take when all my tasks are 
done; 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



Though life has given me a heaping 
measure 

Of all best gifts, and many a cup of 
pleasure, 

Still better things await me farther on. 

This little earth is such a pleasant planet, 

The distances beyond it so supreme, 
I have no doubt that all the mighty spaces 
Between us and the stars are filled with 

faces 

More beautiful than any artist's dream. 

I like to think that I shall yet behold them, 
When from this waiting room my soul 
has soared. 
Earth is a wayside station, where we 

wander 

Until from out the silent darkness yonder, 
Death swings his lantern, and cries, "All 
aboard !" 

I think Death's train sweeps through the 
solar system 
And passes suns and moons that dwarf 
our own, 

And close beside us we shall find our 
dearest, 



THE COMFORT BOOK 53 

The spirit friends on earth we held the 
nearest, 

And in the shining distance God's great 
throne. 

Whatever disappointment may befall me 
In plans or pleasures in this world of 
doubt, 

I know that life at worst can but delay me, 
But no malicious fate has power to stay me 
From that grand journey on the Great 
Death route. 

— Theo. F. Van Wagener. 

Novelists and Essayists 

Victor Hugo's great soul found utterance 
in his later years for these great thoughts : 

"I feel in myself the future life. I am 
like a forest once cut down ; the new shoots 
are stronger and livelier than ever. I am 
rising, I know, toward the sky. The sun- 
shine is on my head. The earth gives me 
its generous sap, but heaven lights me with 
the reflection of unknown worlds. You 
say the soul is nothing but the resultant of 
the bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul 
more luminous when my bodily powers be- 



54 THE COMFORT BOOK 

gin to fail? Winter is on my head, but 
eternal spring is in my heart. I breathe 
at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the 
violets, and the roses, as at twenty years. 
The nearer I approach the end, the plainer 
I hear around me the immortal symphonies 
of the world which invites me. It is mar- 
velous yet simple. It is a fairy tale, and 
it is history. For half a century I have 
been writing my thoughts in prose and in 
verse ; history, philosophy, drama, romance, 
tradition, satire, ode, and song ; I have tried 
all. But I feel I have not said the thou- 
sandth part of what is in me. When I 
go down to the grave I can say, like many 
others, 'I have finished my day's work/ 
But I cannot say 'I have finished my life.' 
My day's work will begin again the next 
morning. The tomb is not a blind alley ; it 
is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight, 
it opens on the dawn." 

For those who know that God is Father 
and Friend, who know that all things work 
for ultimate good' in his large plan; who 
know that while he cares for the universe, 
he cares for every sparrow, and numbers 
every hair of our head — they can tran- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 55 



quilly and gratefully give up to him their 
dear ones, and with tears in their eyes, and 
yet with joy in their heart, bless him for 
the great convictions of immortality he has 
given us. We know that these dear friends 
of ours have passed on before us, happy, 
holy angels, into the society of angels, into 
a higher world of light and love and duty. 

We are told that love abides ; and if love 
abides, the objects of love must also abide. 
The continuance of our human love is one 
of the best evidences, not only of immor- 
tality, but also that we are to know our 
friends again, and be with them again in the 
other life. Else why this undying memory 
of our loved ones, this aching void never 
filled? 

If therefore we shall not remember our 
friends hereafter, I think we should not 
remember anything, and if we did not re- 
member anything, it would be no immor- 
tality of the soul, no continuance of the 
same personal life. What is immortality, 
if love is not immortal? 

So Tennyson, mourning his lost friend, 
shows us in all his tender strains of lamen- 
tation that he has him still, because he loves 
him so truly and so entirely: 



56 THE COMFORT BOOK 



"Known and unknown ; human, divine ; 
Sweet human hand and lips and eye ; 
Dear heavenly friend that canst not die, 
Mine, mine, forever, ever mine." 

— James Freeman Clarke. 

Oh, listen, man ! 
A voice within us speaks the startling word, 
Man, thou shalt never die ! Celestial voices 
Hymn it round our souls ; according harps, 
By angel fingers touched when the wild 
stars 

Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
The song of our great immortality; 
The dying hear it, and as sounds of earth 
Grow dull and distant, wake their passing 
souls 

To mingle in this heavenly harmony. 

— Richard H. Dana. 

It cannot be that the earth is man's only 
abiding place. 

It cannot be that our life is a mere bubble 
cast up by eternity to float a moment on 
its waves and then sink into nothingness. 

Else why is it that the glorious aspira- 
tions which leap like angels from the temple 



THE COMFORT BOOK 57 



of our hearts are forever wandering unsat- 
isfied ? 

Why is it that all the stars that hold their 
festival around the midnight throne are set 
above the grasp of our limited faculties, 
forever mocking us with their unapproach- 
able glory? 

And, finally, why is it that bright forms 
of human beauty presented to our view 
are taken from us, leaving the thousand 
streams of our affections to flow back in 
Alpine torrents upon our hearts ? There is 
a realm where the rainbow never fades; 
where the stars will be spread out before 
us like islands that slumber in the ocean; 
and where the beautiful beings which now 
pass before us like shadows will stay in our 
presence forever. — George D. Prentice. 

There is no death ! The stars go down, 
To rise upon some fairer shore; 

And bright in heaven's jeweled crown 
They shine for evermore. 

There is no death ! An angel form 
Walks o'er the earth with silent tread ; 

He bears our best loved things away ; 
And we then call them "dead." 



58 THE COMFORT BOOK 



But ever near us, though unseen, 
The dear immortal spirits tread; 

For all the boundless universe 
Is life — there are no dead. 

— Lord Lytton. 

The instinct, which prompts the birds at 
the coming of winter to spread their wings 
for a warmer climate, makes it certain that 
the feathered songsters shall not go south, 
and shall not come north in the spring, to be 
disappointed; the instinct is safe and un- 
erring. 

Shall God be kinder to the birds than to 
human beings? He cares much more for 
us than for the fowls of the air. If he has 
something to answer to the migratory in- 
stincts of the birds, we may be sure that 
our expectation of a better country, of a 
fair summerland, shall not meet with dis- 
appointment. The spirit that rises in Chris- 
tian faith from the ashes of human mor- 
tality, and soars away toward the sky, is 
going to find the blessedness anticipated. 
This should be our assurance, as we listen 
to the singing of birds, to the voice of the 
turtledove, to the joyous notes of bluebird 
and robin, and the various songsters of the 



THE COMFORT BOOK 59 



spring. . . . The soul divinely guided, re- 
turns to God whence it came. Let it but 
follow the directions of the still small voice 
heard within, and it will never falter or 
stop in its flight upward till it rests in the 
bosom of God, till it finds its nest beyond 
the stars, in that "home of the soul.'' 

Beings with the migratory instinct for 
heaven are not going to be put to shame at 
the last. . . . Man's grand ideals are over- 
tures of immortality, because they require 
and demand immortality for their realiza- 
tion. . . . Aspirations are liens upon im- 
mortal life, and they are stepping stones 
that slope through the darkness up to God. 
The planting of a desire indicates that the 
gratification of that desire is in the con- 
stitution of the creature that feels it. It 
is there structurally. The Creator keeps 
his word with everything and everybody. 
— Andrew W. Archibald. 

The Easter Hope, by A. W. Archibald. Copyright by Salem D. Towne, Boston 
Mass. 

I thank thee, Father, that at this simple 
grave on which the dawn is breaking, em- 
blem of that day which hath no close, thou 
kindly unto my dark mind hath sent a 
sacred light, and that away from this green 



6o THE COMFORT BOOK 



hillock, whither I had come in sorrow, 
thou art leading me in joy. — Richard Henry 
Dana. 

The truest end of life is to know the life 
that never ends. — William Penn. 

Haste not — rest not. Calm in strife 
Meekly bear the storms of life; 
Duty be thy polar guide ; 
Do the right, whate'er betide ; 
Haste not — rest not. Conflicts past 
God shall crown thy work at last. 
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

Will my tiny speck of being wholly vanish 

in your deeps and lights ? 
Must my day be dark by reason, O ye 

heavens, of our boundless nights, 
Rush of suns, and roll of systems, and your 

fiery clash of meteorites ? 

Spirit, nearing yon dark portal at the limit 

of my human state, 
Fear not, thou, the hidden purpose of that 

Power whicfi alone is great, 
Nor the myriad world, his shadow, nor the 

silent Opener of the Gate. 

— Anon. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 61 



Eternity, which cannot be far off, is my 
one strong city. I look into it fixedly now 
and then. All terms about it seem to me 
superfluous. The universe is full of love 
and of inexorable sternness and veracity; 
and it remains forever true that God reigns. 
Patience, silence, hope. — Carlyle. 

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning 
breaketh, 

When the bird waketh, and the shadows 

flee- 
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight, 
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am 

with thee ! 

So shall it be at last, in that bright morning, 
When the soul waketh, and life's shadows 
flee; 

O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawn- 
ing, 

Shall rise the glorious thought — I am 
with thee! 

— Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

I do not believe in a long, dreary sleep, 
nor in a "happy land far, far away." I 
believe that death is itself a resurrection. 



62 THE COMFORT BOOK 



Death is the dropping away of the body 
from the spirit; resurrection is the up- 
springing of the spirit from the body. The 
two are identical. Death is as we see it 
here; resurrection is as they see it on the 
other side of the thin veil which separates 
two worlds. And while I frankly admit 
to myself and to others that I do not know 
with clearly defined and scientific knowl- 
edge respecting that other world, I believe 
that I have a right to accept the interpre- 
tations of it given by the New Testament, 
confirming my own hopes and desires, and 
to believe that the friends who have gone 
are the great cloud of witnesses to which 
the apostle refers, and that they look on 
and see how we run our race, fight our 
battles, bear our burdens here, and I have 
wished so to live and so to carry myself 
in my own sorrow as not to minister any 
element of sorrow to her whom I still re- 
gard as my comrade. I think I can truly 
say that I am never less lonely than at times 
when I am alone, and when the choir in- 
visible no longer seems invisible, when it 
seems to me as though I have only to push 
open the door and enter into the other room 
where they are, unseen by me but not un- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 63 



able to see and minister to me. — From a 
Personal Letter of the Rev. Dr. Lyman 
Abbott to the compiler. 

Note. — Dr Abbott's wife died in Germany six years before. 

Man looks for an hour of liberation 
which shall repeal the flesh and cancel the 
clod. He has a notion that earth's roof 
is heaven's floor, and expects to break jail 
by way of the skylight. His understanding 
is that when discharged and manumitted 
here he is requisitioned elsewhere. 

Renan said in his last days, "The inward 
worth of a man is measured by his reli- 
gious tendencies." These are gravitations 
to draw him home. ... It is humanity 
being drawn home by the hovering heaven. 
Hid somewhere underfoot in the heart of 
this rock-crusted globe is the seat of the 
power called gravitation which holds man's 
body down. Anchored in the hidden heart 
of God above is the attraction which con- 
trols the spirit and commands and orders 
home a liberated humanity when it slips the 
leash of matter and goes free. 

What better can we say than that life 
here is incubation, and death is the final 
launching away off this narrow ledge of 



64 THE COMFORT BOOK 

Time? When liberation and levitation 
come, it will not seem strange to be afloat 
on the bosom of eternity, but as natural as 
nature's self. We were made for that life 
as surety as for this, and folded within us 
are the faculties that fit us for it. The 
young eagle, pushed out of the nest and off 
the cliff's edge, is buoyed by wings sufficient 
though before untried. Some "full-grown 
power informs her from the first," and she 
sweeps easily away through superior spaces 
vast and unexplored. . . . She is as much 
at home there, afloat in and supported on 
the unseen, as ever she was on the crag. 
She knows neither strangeness, nor danger, 
nor fear. She is meant for the airy heavens 
when her time comes, as certainly as for the 
cliff until her time comes. Nor could you 
coax her back to be content with the nest 
of sticks and the narrow ledge whence she 
launched away into her legitimate large, 
natural liberty. Likewise the soul is 
secretly, unconsciously equipped to survive 
and subsist hereafter as naturally and as 
easily as here. True for all realms and 
worlds are the lines : 

"Go where he will, the good man is at home ; 



THE COMFORT BOOK 65 

Where the good Spirit leads him, there's 
his road, 

By God's own light illumined and fore- 
showed." 

August with lofty dignity are the antique 
words of Sir Thomas Browne, the Nor- 
wich physician: "Those that look merely 
upon my outside, perusing only my condi- 
tion and fortunes, do err as to my altitude, 
for I am above Atlas' shoulders. The mass 
of flesh that circumscribes me limits not 
my mind. You cannot measure me, for I 
take my circle to be above 360 degrees. 
There is surely a piece of divinity in us. 
. . . Nature tells me I am the image of 
God ; he that understands not this much 
hath not learned his first lesson and is yet 
to begin the alphabet of man." . . . 

Geometry cannot measure Man ; his circle 
exceeds 360 degrees. Astronomy cannot 
calculate his orbit; it knows not the equa- 
tion of his path. A Pilgrim of the Infinite 
is he; and the old hymn, familiar to our 
childhood, sings on in our souls : 

"Thus onward we move, and, save God 
above, 



66 THE COMFORT BOOK 

None guesseth how wondrous the journey 
will prove." 

— William Valentine Kelley. 

Let us trust the divine laws of God, which 
work on forever, creating evermore new 
growth, tending to develop higher forms, 
nobler activities, more sweet and joyful 
lives. Through death we go into higher 
life. — James Freeman Clarke. 

Theologians and Preachers 

What, then, is this truth which we be- 
lieve ? The dead live. 

In the years gone we had them with us. 
They separated from the throng and 
gave us their love. They grew into our 
being and became a part of us. One day 
they became weary and sick. We thought 
nothing of it at first; but morning after 
morning came and they were more faint. 
The story of the dark days that followed is 
too sad. One dreary night with radiant 
face they kissed us and said good-by. They 
were dead. Kind neighbors came in and 
carried them out of our home and we fol- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 67 



lowed with dumb awe and saw them lay 
them down gently beneath the earth. We 
returned to the vacant house which never 
could be home any more. Our hearts were 
broken. The earth and sky have been so 
dark since that day. We have searched 
through the long nights and desolate days 
for them; they do not come back. We 
listen, but we get no tidings. Neither form 
nor voice comes to us. The dark, silent 
immensity has swallowed them up. Are 
they extinct? No. They live. We cannot 
tell where, whether near us or remote ; we 
cannot tell in what form, but they live. 
They are essentially the same beings they 
were when they went in and out among us. 
There has been no break in their life. It 
is as if they had crossed the sea. The old 
memories and old loves still are w r ith them. 
New friends do not displace old ones. They 
are more beautiful than when we knew 
them, and purer and holier and happier. 
They are not sick or weary now and are 
free from all pain. They have no sorrow. 
They are not alone. They have joined 
others. They think and talk of us. They 
make affectionate inquiry for our welfare. 
They wait for us. They are learning great 



68 THE COMFORT BOOK 



lessons which they mean to recite to us 
some day. They are not- lonely; they are 
a glorious company. They have no envies 



happiness of their new life. They are kings 
and priests unto God. They wear crowns 
that flash in the everlasting light. They 
wear robes that are spotless white. They 
wave victorious palms. They sing anthems 
of such exceeding sweetness as no earthly 
choirs ever approach. They stand before 
the throne. They fly on ministries of love. 
They are rapturous with ecstasies of love. 
God wipes away all tears from their eyes ; 
and there is no more death, neither sorrow 
nor crying, nor any more pain; for the 
former things are passed away. The glori- 
ous angels are their teachers and com- 
panions. . . . The discussion of this doc- 
trine teaches us the greatness of the future 
and urges its paramount claims. How can 
we be charmed any more with the earth? 
How can we resist the attraction of the 
blessed heaven? This time — a day, a mo- 
ment — what has it for us that we should 
cling to it, love it ? The immortal home, the 
blessed ones awaiting us, the spirits of just 
men made perfect, the endless good in store, 



or jealousies. They 




dshed with the 



THE COMFORT BOOK 69 

will they not draw us with irresistible at- 
traction ? 

These views clothe our friendships with a 
new charm, and enrich them with an eternal 
value. Blessed loves ! how happy they have 
made us on earth ; what will they be when 
they have deepened through ages, with no 
alloy of envy or suspicion or selfishness, or 
sorrow ! 

Who as he stands here and looks into that 
blessed state feels not within him the yearn- 
ing to depart ? 

Multitudes stand waiting to receive us, 
expecting our arrival. With open arms they 
will embrace us, and with blessed welcomes 
attend us to our prepared homes. 

Let us not disappoint them; but be up 
and pressing on until the battle of life is 
fought and we ascend to join them. — 
Bishop Randolph S. Foster. 

Listen, then, for through the ages comes 
a voice saying, "I am the resurrection/' It 
does not falter or waver, but is clear and 
strong. If that voice is true you may even 
rejoice at separation, for the doors of an- 
other home are swinging wide open, and 



7o THE COMFORT BOOK 



dear ones long since departed, stand at the 
threshold to welcome the new comer. — 
George H. Hepworth. 

Herald Sermons, vol. I. Copyright, 1897, by E. P, Dutton & Co. 

Amid the drudgery and hardship of life 
keep that truth in mind and it will clear the 
fogs away and leave you in sunshine. We 
are on the road home, and the way is some- 
times dark and dreary, but when we get 
there we shall see that every experience of 
earth was intended to fit us for the higher 
joys of heaven. 

— George H. Hepworth. 

Herald Sermons, rol. II. Copyright, 1897, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

I am immortal ! I should never forget it, 
but should carry myself as one who cher- 
ishes that truth. No matter what my con- 
ditions in life may be, whether I be poor or 
rich, learned or unlettered, well or ill, strug- 
gling or at leisure, I am immortal. I shall 
outlive my body and my sorrows, my tears 
and my sighs, all hardships and heart- 
breakings, for God — my God — will help me 
through it all, and his Christ has prepared 



THE COMFORT BOOK 71 



a place for me where I shall dwell at peace 
and be at rest. . . . 

— George H. Hepworth. 

We Shall Lire Again. Copyright, 1903, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

Let the current bear us where it will, we 
are in God's hands, and the current is sub- 
ject to his instruction. Other worlds await 
us. Larger opportunities are in the near 
future. The soul, now hampered by cir- 
cumstances, shall some time be free; the 
burden of environment shall be dropped, 
and when we are emancipated we shall be 
larger, nobler, and more like the Christ. 
What care we then for time? The years 
may come and go as they please and their 
speed does not disturb us. We are on the 
road to our eternal home and the nearer 
we get to it the higher are our anticipations, 
the deeper are our longings. Earth is noth- 
ing when heaven is in sight. . . . — George 
H. hepworth. 

Making the Most of Life. Copyright, 1904, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

As for me the other life is a clear and 
distinct fact. I have more faith in it than 
I have in this life, and, thus believing, I 
must, of course, regard it as altogether pref- 
erable to this life. If either the present or 



72 THE COMFORT BOOK 

the future is a dream, then, I am sure that 
I am dreaming now and that the grand 
reality is to come. To feel that there is a 
fire in me which is simply smoldering dur- 
ing my earthly years because of my bodily 
limitations, but which will break into an 
unrestrained blaze when death, the great 
hypnotist, shall put my physical system to 
sleep — that feeling forces me to look for- 
ward with high anticipation. I may be 
amazed as I contemplate this truth, but my 
amazement gives place to plans which out- 
reach the narrow boundaries of time. The 
soul pulses with pride at the thought of its 
greatness and its destiny, and must live in 
accordance with them. 

— George H. Hepworth. 

Making the Most of Life. Copyright, 1904, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

It is not always easy to realize that our 
souls do not perish with our bodies, but 
surely no such cold doubts need assail the 
Christian's heart, nor chill his faith, as he 
thinks of those who sleep in Jesus, for 
reason asserts, and Scripture affirms its 
assertion, that zve shall see them again, that 
we shall know them, and it will add to the 
joys of heaven even, that in the full com- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 73 



munion of love we can cast our crowns at 
our Saviour's feet. The river of forget ful- 
ness did indeed flow through the heaven of 
ancient heathenism, but let us thank God 
that it does not water the Christian's Para- 
dise. — S. O. Seymour. 

Through th« Darkness. Copyright, 1884, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

I think that the two things above all 
others that have made men in all ages be- 
lieve in immortality, apart, so far as we 
know, from any revelation save that which 
is written in the human heart, have been 
the broken lives and the broken friendships 
of the world. 



And yet, what terrible misgivings ! Per- 
haps there is no more ! Perhaps it is all 
over! Until, to the soul standing with all 
its questionings before the door of the tomb, 
He who liveth and was dead came as he 
came to Martha, and holding out the key of 
death, said the great final conclusive words, 
"Thy brother shall rise again. " 

Men's souls leaped to that word because 
they wanted to believe it and had not dared 
wholly to believe it till he showed them 
that it was true. And now if we believe 



74 THE COMFORT BOOK 



in him, we do believe it, and death is really 
changed to us, and the dead are really living 
by the assurance of the living Christ. . . . 
A living Christ, dear friends ! the old, ever- 
new, ever-blessed Easter truth ! He liveth ; 
he was dead; he is alive for evermore. 
Do you believe it? What are you dreary for, 
O mourner ? What are you hesitating for, 
O Worker? What are you fearing death 
for, O man? 

Oh, if we could only lift up our heads 
and live with him; live new lives, high 
lives, lives of love and hope and holiness, to 
which death should be nothing but the 
breaking away of the last cloud, and the 
letting of the life out to its completion. — 
Phillips Brooks. 

The Purpose and Use of Comfort. Copyright, 1906, by E. P. Dutton & Co. 

Immortality is the leverage of righteous- 
ness, the power by which humanity is raised 
out of habits and vices worse than animal; 
it is the vast support of the spirit against 
the flesh, the infinite ally of love against 
brutality, the necessary and mighty postu- 
late of the true life of mankind. 



The bedrock of the universe is the faith- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 75 



fulness of God, the integrity of our Maker, 
and at our being's height we can do no 
other and no better than ground our trust 
upon the immutable promise confirmed by 
the oath of him that cannot lie, and thus 
rest our hope of the life after death upon 
the truth of Christ and the honor of God. 
: — George A. Gordon. 

The Witness to Immortality. Copyright by Houghton Mifflin Company. 

Shortly before his death, the Rev. Robert 
J. Burdette wrote a personal letter to the 
editor of an Eastern Baptist paper, in 
which he said: 

"I watch the sunset as I look out over the 
rim of the blue Pacific, and there is no mys- 
tery beyond the horizon line, because I 
know what there is over there. I have been 
there. I have journeyed in those lands. 
Over there where the sun is just sinking is 
Japan. That star is rising over China. In 
that direction lie the Philippines. I know 
all that. Well, there is another land that 
I look toward as I watch the sunset. I have 
never seen it. I have never seen any one 
who has been there, but it has a more abid- 
ing reality than any of these lands which I 
do know. This land beyond the sunset — ■ 



76 THE COMFORT BOOK 

this land of immortality, this fair and 
blessed country of the soul — why, this 
heaven of ours is the one thing in the world 
which I know with absolute, unshaken, un- 
changeable certainty. This I know with a 
knowledge that is never shadowed by a 
passing cloud of doubt. I may not always 
be certain about this w r orld ; my geographi- 
cal locations may sometimes become con- 
fused, but the other world — that I know. 
And as the afternoon sun sinks lower, faith 
shines more clearly and hope, lifting her 
voice in a higher key, sings the songs of 
fruition. My work is about ended, I think. 
The best of it I have done poorly; any of it 
I might have done better, but I have done 
it. And in a fairer land, with finer material 
and a better working light, I will do better 
work." 

Flowers ! speak to me this morning the 
same dear old lesson of immortality which 
you have been speaking to so many sorrow- 
ing souls. 

Wise old book ! let me read again in your 
pages that to die is gain. Poets ! recite to 
me your verses which repeat in every line 
the gospel of eternal life. Singers! break 



THE COMFORT BOOK 77 



forth once more into songs of joy, let me 
hear again the well-known resurrection 
psalm. Tree and blossom and bird' and sea 
and sky and wind, whisper it, sound it 
afresh, warble it, echo it, let it throb and 
pulsate through every atom and particle; 
let the air be filled with it ; let it be beaten 
into our brains, there to be told and retold 
and still retold until hope rises to convic- 
tion, and conviction unto certitude of 
knowledge, until we, like Paul, even though 
going to our death, go with triumphal mien, 
with assured faith, with serene and shining 
face, able to say, I know in whom I have 
believed, for the which cause I suffer death, 
and I am persuaded that He is able to keep 
my soul which I have committed unto him 
even unto the end. — Thomas Van Ness. 

Reasons for Faith in Immortality, Copyright by American Unitarian Association, 
Boston, Mass. 



I say to thee, do thou repeat 

To the first man thou mayest meet 

In lane, highway, or open street — 

That he and we and all men move 

Under a canopy of love, 

As broad as the blue sky above ; 



78 THE COMFORT BOOK 



That doubt and trouble, fear and pain 
And anguish, all are shadows, vain, 
That death itself shall not remain ; 

That weary deserts we may tread, 
A dreary labyrinth may thread, 
Through dark ways underground be led ; 

Yet if we will one Guide obey, 

The dreariest path, the darkest way, 

Shall issue out in heavenly day. 

— Richard Chenevix Trench. 



Why be afraid of Death as though your 

life were breath ! 
Death but anoints your eyes with clay, O 

glad surprise! 

Why should you be forlorn? Death only 

husks the corn, 
Why should you fear to meet the thresher 

of the wheat? 

Is sleep a thing to dread ? Yet sleeping you 

are dead? 

Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond 
the skies. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 79 



Why should it be a wrench to leave your 

wooden bench, 
Why not with happy shout run home when 

school is out. 

The dear ones left behind ! O foolish one 
and blind, 

A day — and you will meet; a night — and 
you will greet ! 

This is the death of Death, to breathe away 
a breath 

And know the end of strife, and taste the 
deathless life, 

And joy without a fear, and smile without 
a tear, 

And work, nor care nor rest, and find the 
last the best. 

— Maltbie D. Babcock. 

Thoughts for Every Day Living. Copyright, 1901, by Charles Scribner's Sons v 
New York. 

Without this larger faith in the future we 
would be without defense and without com- 
fort in the face of the worst desolations of 
the heart. No earthly consolation can reach 
the root of the deepest sorrows of life. 



8o THE COMFORT BOOK 



Without eternity there would be some 
wounds that could never be stanched, and 
some griefs that must be incurable. 

There can be no healing of the grave's 
most poignant sting without immortal faith. 
Our heart need not be troubled or afraid if 
we believe in the God whom Jesus revealed. 
We can leave ourselves and all our love to 
him. 

In the power of endless life, all burdens 
are lightened. 

The sunshine of eternity illumines the 
mansions of time. — Hugh Black. 

From Comfort, by Hugh Black. Copyright, 1910, by Flaming H. ReveTl Com- 
pany. 

If a man dies, shall he live again? After 
long mental conflict and distress over the 
teachings of the scientists, at last our sun 
has cleared itself of clouds, and we hold a 
faith in the future that is as firm as the 
stars and as bright and sure. When we 
read in Sir Walter Scott's journal the 
words, "Last night I slept soundly, and in 
the morning'' (after which the pen fell 
from his hand forever), we believe that the 
morning eternal dawned and that his pen 
resumed its task. For ours is a reasonable 



THE COMFORT BOOK 81 



and moral universe. If the heroes and 
martyrs have never lived again, then the 
sun shoots off rays of blackness and icicles. 
Socrates was true to his convictions, and 
wore threadbare garments and ate crusts. 
And with a prayer to God upon his lips was 
put to death, while his judges went home 
to drink wine and sleep on beds of down. 
Where is Socrates ? Has he met the Homer 
and Hesiod, and the two philosophers 
whom he called his teachers and heroes? 
Has he been rewarded of God for his 
deeper convictions and finer feelings? 
Lost ? No ! A thousand times no ! We do 
not charge God with folly ! Abraham Lin- 
coln has seen of the travail of his soul and 
been satisfied. Tennyson, who felt that he 
had just begun to master the beginnings of 
his craft, and the rude beginnings of the 
beautiful, has found the beauty that is per- 
fect, and that ravishes the soul with loveli- 
ness that is divine. Paul has found that 
dying is gain. The broken-hearted mother 
has found her sweet babe and received it 
again from the arms of the angel that did 
always behold the face of its Father which 
art in heaven. Therefore, look upward, 
beyond the clouds shines the eternal sun. 



82 THE COMFORT BOOK 



Because God lives, you who are made in 
his image shall live also. 

Forget your fears and anxieties. The 
sons and daughters of immortality should 
not go through life dull-eyed, despondent, 
and discrowned. This life, incomplete here, 
shall be completed there. Through adver- 
sity and fire, mist and hail, we slowly prove 
our souls. Having begun to live it is but 
a little thing that God should continue the 
soul that has begun its long career. Gone 
those that are dearest and best, and time 
can neither allay our sorrow nor cure our 
grief. The loneliness must continue while 
the separation continues. But if they come 
not back to us, we go to them. . . . There- 
fore put away all dark garments worn of 
selfishness, passion, and sin! Array your- 
selves in garments of hope and faith, with 
a girdle of love. And in that hour when 
the soul rises through the pathless air and 
goes winging its way to the Court of Love, 
who shall describe the joy of those who cast 
their crowns befQre Him who hath brought 
immortality to light! While, with one 
accord, all exclaim, "Not unto us, not unto 
us, but unto thy name be all the praise of 
our salvation." For in God, in Christ, in 



THE COMFORT BOOK 83 



holiness and in love, the soul shall ever 
live and move and have its eternal being. — 

Newell D wight Hillis. 

Sermon on Immortality, in Brooklyn Eagle. 

Periodical Press 

The question is sometimes asked, "Does 
death end all?" Death ends nothing; it is 
simply a change. There are no dead in 
the sense in which the phrase is commonly 
used; there are only the living in the vast 
mystery of life which unfolds us all, on 
the fathomless stream of life which bears 
us all forward. We are here for a little 
time, as we are often in inns where we 
make friends who are dear to us, and then 
we leave them and go on to another stage 
in our journey; we miss them and they miss 
us, and neither their places nor ours are 
ever taken by others. But we see new land- 
scapes and pass through new experiences 
into a larger world, and they presently fol- 
low us. We are separated and are often 
lonely, but we look forward joyfully to new 
sights and sounds, and to the hour when, 
farther on in the journey, we shall look into 
their eyes and hear their voices. 

To think of life as one and indivisible, 



84 THE COMFORT BOOK 

of immortality as our possession, here and 
now, of death as normal change in an eter- 
nal process of growth, of those whom we 
call dead as more intensely alive than when 
we saw them, is to transform the experience 
which has overshadowed the world for cen- 
turies as the end of happiness into a larger 
freedom and joy, and to make immortality 
not a vague expectation but a glorious open- 
ing of the doors and windows of the house 
of life. "While we poor wayfarers still 
toil with hot and bleeding feet, along the 
highway and the dust of lif e,^ writes Dr. 
Martineau, "our companions have but 
mounted the divergent path, to explore the 
more sacred streams, and visit the divine 
vales, and wander amid the everlasting 
Alps of God's upper provinces of creation. 
And so we keep up the courage of our 
hearts, and refresh ourselves with the mem- 
ories of love, and travel forward in the 
ways of duty, with less weary step, feeling 
ever for the hand of God, and listening for 
the domestic voices of the immortals whose 
happy welcome awaits us. Death, in short, 
under the Christian aspect, is but God's 
method of colonization ; the transition from 
this mother country of our race to the 



THE COMFORT BOOK 85 



fairer and newer world of our emigration. 
— The Outlook, 

What glories await the spirit set free 
From fetters of earth, untrammeled to be! 
The work begun here is continued above, 
And all that blest life is service and love. 

— Parish Visitor. 

The testimony of literature to the hope 
of immortality is valuable because it repre- 
sents the judgment and the instincts of the 
men and women of the highest ranks of 
genius. 

The human soul has always been the 
chief subject of study for literary genius. 
Inventive, scientific, political, and military 
genius takes little thought of the higher life 
of man. Indeed, the effect of the things 
which occupy men of genius of these classes 
is often to divert their thought from the 
consideration of the soul. But literary 
genius has for its most constant theme, in 
varying form, the human soul. It means 
much, therefore, when with practical una- 
nimity these great students of the spirit 
affirm their belief in its immortality. One 
of the marked characteristics of the literary 



86 THE COMFORT BOOK 



masters is their recognition of the spiritual 
meanings of life. Their genius is that of 
the seer. Poets, dramatists, and novelists 
are always seers of visions. For them the 
unseen is always the background of the 
seen. For them hidden light is always shin- 
ing out of things. Behind the visible they 
forever hear the footfalls of the invisible 
creation, and the reality of things lies be- 
neath the appearance of things. To them 
life and nature are always waiting for an 
interpreter through whom their secret sig- 
nificance may be made known. This mystic 
element, as seen by the eyes of literary 
genius, is the thing of deepest interest in 
human life. 

When literature, therefore, takes up the 
question of immortality, it has practically 
but one answer. Man must be immortal, 
or there is no meaning in life, and the whole 
course of history is moving to a hopeless 
and remediless tragedy. Man must be im- 
mortal, or a magnificent harmony is des- 
tined to end in clashing discord. Man must 
be immortal, or what inspired souls have 
taken to be beacon lights on the hills of the 
future are the flames of funeral pyres, and 
God has put the song of hope in the uni- 



THE COMFORT BOOK 87 



versal human heart only to smother it at 
last in dust and ashes. — Sunday School 
Journal. 

Miscellaneous 

O, blessed thought ! we shall not always so 
In darkness and in sadness walk alone ; 

There comes a glorious day when we shall 
know 
As we are known. 

To be absent from the body is to be pres- 
ent with the Lord. The word translated 
"to be present" really means to be among 
one's people : surrounded by familiar scenes 
and faces ; in a word, to be at home; and is 
there not something very beautiful in this 
divine assurance, that the spirit as it goes 
forth from the body does not feel the sun- 
dering of the ties which bind us to the earth, 
nor is it oppressed with the strangeness of 
the transition, nor bewildered by the im- 
mensity of its abode? Its exit will be a 
going home : some place there is which is 
the Home of Christ's redeemed ones : where 
they shall be welcomed to his Presence, and 
have friendly hands outstretched to greet 
them and loved faces to surround them, 



88 THE COMFORT BOOK 



and blissful occupations to engage them. 
Heaven is the home of the spirit, and death 
instead of unhousing it, or turning it adrift 
like an ejected tenant from its present 
dwelling, opens for it the door of its true 
home, and ushers it into its heavenly inti- 
macies and companionships. 

All around, man's acres lie, 
Under the same brooding sky. 
There, the plowman blithely sings ; 
Broadcast, there the sower flings 
Golden grain, to die in gloom, 
Making every clod its tomb. 
Lo! a miracle is seen — 
Acres clothed in living green. 

In their midst God's acre lies, 
Under these same yearning skies. 
Here, men move with dirges slow ; 
Here, their tears unbidden flow; 
Loved forms, here, in earth they lay ; 
Leave to darkness and decay. 
Autumns wane, and springs return ; 
Still they sleep 'neath shaft and urn. 

Side by side, those acres lie, 
Under this expectant sky. 



THE COMFORT BOOK 89 



What ? On God's lies death's dark spell, 
While in man's comes miracle? 
No ! for love's eyes pierce the gloom ! 
No ! for Christ hath burst the tomb ! 
God will give by power unknown, 
Each a body of its own. 

— Anon. 

Hail, glorious dawn! 

Bright, beauteous morn ! 
When I shall wake from death's embrace, 
And see my Saviour face to face, 

My life revived, 

The great white throne beside, 

"I shall be satisfied." 

O joy complete! 

Loved ones to greet, 
And to my bosom as of yore, 
Press close — to part again no more. 

With Him I'll then abide 

Close to his loving side, 

Forever satisfied. 

— Anon. 

The stars shine over the earth, 
The stars shine over the sea; 



THE COMFORT BOOK 



The stars look up to the mighty God, 
The stars look down on me. 
The stars have lived for a million year 
A million years and a day ; 
But God and I shall love and live 
When the stars have passed away. 

— Anon. 



V €nbot 

Heaven overarches earth and sea, 
Earth-sadness and sea-bitterness. 

Heaven overarches you and me: 

A little while and we shall be — 

Please God — where there is no more sea 
Nor barren wilderness. 

Heaven overarches you and me, 

And all earth's gardens and her graves. 
Look up with me, until we see 
The day break and the shadows flee. 
What though to-night wrecks you and me 

If so to-morrow saves? 

— C. G. Rossetti. 

From The Golden Treasury. Copyright by The Macmillan Company. 



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